BARKHAMSTED >> Despite ardent opposition across the border, Barkhamsted residents will decide if their town should give developers of a new medical building a break on taxes on Feb. 6.

The Barkhamsted Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 during a special meeting Wednesday night to set a town meeting in two weeks. While the meeting will also settle concerns over a pair of ordinances, the meeting will primarily deal with the proposed tax abatement for the new facility, which will house Charlotte Hungerford Hospital's services and leave the Winsted Health Center upon completion.

"The principal issue here is that we're proposing to provide a five-year tax abatement to the property," said Barkhamsted First Selectman Don Stein.

Stein said the abatement would be lowered to 50 percent in the sixth year of the deal, dropping to 25 percent in the seventh and final year. Barkhamsted Economic Development Commission chairman Brad Martin said the abatement was necessary to push the project through.

Advertisement

"In an effort to foster commercial development within Barkhamsted, the town initiated a program for awarding real property tax incentives to owners of new and expanding commercial and manufacturing enterprises in Barkhamsted," Martin said.

The selectmen stopped short of approving the proposal for the property outright at Wednesday night's meeting, however. Stein said that the issue was simply a matter of standard operating procedure, since both Barkhamsted and Borghesi Engineering have made their own revisions and are trying to protect their interests.

"As with any contract," Stein said, "we propose something, Borghesi looked at it and provided some editorial comments."

Those comments came through the day of the special Board of Selectmen meeting, Stein added, so the town attorney had not been able to review them yet. Stein said that he did not expect anything to significantly derail the agreement, remarking that "there's no major issues that I'm aware of."

"The consensus of the board is that we would approve it once Borghesi and the town attorney agree on the language," said Stein.

The new building would be constructed west of Mallory Brook Plaza, sited just over the town line from Winchester. The idea of the facility was not received quite as warmly there, though, as Charlotte Hungerford Hospital is pulling its services out of the Winsted Health Center.

The center would still provide heath services, which are not connected to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, such as VA services, but Winsted's Board of Selectmen united to express their disappointment with Charlotte Hungerford Hospital's decision. Despite the disapproval from Winsted's Selectmen, the town did agree to extend its water and sewer lines into Barkhamsted to bring this facility to fruition.

"I believe that this new facility will provide substantial, long-term benefits to the town, including potential for additional economic growth with no additional costs," said Allan Borghesi of Borghesi Engineering in a previous interview.